Thunderbolts #163Review

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The Thunderbolts head back to WWII.

By Joshua Yehl

Last issue's horrifically fiery climax leaves this story to start off in a strange place. A group of Thunderbolts have teleported the base to an unknown location while Luke Cage and his team desperately try to figure out how they got screwed so badly. The art retains its stellar quality, but Parker's script proves to be weakened by the strange plot twist.

Since 1940s era Captain America and Namor are on the cover, it hardly spoils the plot to say that the 'Bolts somehow wind up back in the time of WWII. Parker continues to develop each character through different funny, clever, and emotionally painful moments, making the group of former-villains-turned-villains-again feel like human beings instead of one-dimensional bad guys – the bread and butter of this title. Unfortunately, the time travel plot twist feels tacked on and out of place just to give the aforementioned heroes a cameo. Not even the characters sitting in front of giant super computers know why the base hopped back in time, and surprisingly few others seem to care.

In fact, most of the characters just want to punch some Nazis – and they get to. Parker creates a dynamic battle scene that allows Walker to offer up some impressive visuals. Power shields crackle with energy and countless fiery planes streak towards the ground, but Satana steals the show when she harnesses her inner demon. Walker scores with some quieter moments too: Man-Thing's grassy germination chamber looks oddly beautiful as countless butterflies fill the air, and the shot of Hyde being pleasured by a harem of succubi looks equal parts nasty and intriguing.

Parker's impressive character work has maintained its consistent quality along with Walker's detailed pencils, but the Invaders cameo combined with the confusion still not cleared up from the previous issue's cliffhanger hurts the overall narrative. What happened to the giant fiery Man-Thing storming through the city last issue? It is hard to say, but hopefully once the Nazis are done getting punched, someone will figure it out.